The Swarm
The Swarm was a Multibots that competed in the Superheavyweight division in BattleBots. It was built and driven by three experienced competitors: Jim Smentowski of Team Nightmare, Stephen Felk, builder of Voltronic and Paul Mathus of Das Bot fame. However, the robots never made it past the preliminary rounds and thus never appeared on television. The robot consisted of three smaller robots that all weighed within the Middleweight range with the exception of Locust, which during Series 5 weighed slightly over the limit. This meant two of the robots had to be immobilized for the whole robot to be declared immobile. They were: Locust: Built by Jim Smentowski, Locust was originally an invertible 2-wheel drive box with rear caster wheels and two front spikes. It was very fast and weighed 108 pounds. After Series 4, Locust was rebuilt to be more of a Backlash-esque design, an invertible vertical spinner robot. The weapon system of the new Locust was actually Nightmare's old Series 4 weapon system, giving Locust serious damaging capabilities. This new version of Locust weighed 124 pounds. Mosquito: Built by Stephen Felk, Mosquito was a very flat H-shaped robot also equipped with 2 wheels and a front wedge which was slightly wider than the wheelbase. Mosquito was very well-armored and was able to withstand great impacts while still fighting. Mosquito was the lightest of the three, weighing a slight 97 pounds. Dragonfly: Built by Paul Mathus, Dragonfly was another 2-wheel drive box, similar to the original Locust, but instead of spikes it was armed with a front wedge made out of titanium. The robot had lots of pushing power and weighed 116 pounds. Mosquito still fights today as a heavyweight, competing in RoboGames and the ComBots Cup, achieving moderate success and going flying a second time at RoboGames 2012 when it was hit hard by Last Rites. Robot History Series 3 The Swarm fought Dawn of Destruction in their only fight. At this time, multibots were still a new concept to BattleBots, and the rules were not completely clear on multibots and how they should be run. The Swarm team made a mistake and were disqualified after their fight, but did deal slight damage to Dawn of Destruction. Series 4 The Swarm fought Swirlee in their only Series 4 fight. Dragonfly and Locust tried to ram into Swirlee's disc to stop it. However, the weight difference meant that every time they hit Swirlee, they went flying. Mosquito, however, managed to get underneath and push Swirlee around. One of Locust's rams disabled it by breaking its power switch. After more rams Dragonfly broke a drive chain and could only move in circles. Mosquito pushed Swirlee the entire match, even pushing Swirlee into the spike strips once. Two of the robots survived to the end, and despite Mosquito's best efforts The Swarm lost 25-20. Series 5 In their first match with the new Locust, The Swarm fought Little Pink Butterfly of Doom. Little Pink Butterfly was having drive troubles and couldn't hit any of The Swarm, but The Swarm got in lots of hits and won the match 37-8. In their second match they fought newcomers Final Destiny. Mosquito was armed with a small scoop so it could get underneath Final Destiny's skirts. Mosquito tried to get underneath but failed, and on a third try it drove up one of Final Destiny's skirts and was hit hard, flying 6 feet into the air and bouncing off the walls of the BattleBox. The audience was stunned when Mosquito continued fighting. The other two robots tried to hit Final Destiny during this time, but the robot's bar spun up too fast and they were tossed aside as well. Locust was hit again and the disc warped, the frame was bent, and Locust stopped moving. The other two robots kept attacking, and eventually Final Destiny's blade stopped spinning. Unfortunately, at the end of the fight the judges ruled in Final Destiny's favor, 27-18. Category:Superheavyweight Robots Category:Multibots Category:Robots that are still fighting today Category:Robot with Spinner